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How on Earth can I read this Headstone??

Elizabeth Auxer Kleiss was the wife of Johan Philip Kleiss and was buried along with him at the First Reformed Church in their cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For eternity. Really???

Well, only until they needed that ground for something else! At that point they needed to find a final resting spot for the occupants of the cemetery and many of the stones were moved to the Stranger’s Burial Ground in Lancaster Cemetery. Some were put in the wall at the Church.

Records indicate that Elizabeth and Philip were moved to Lancaster Cemetery. The stones in the Stranger’s ground are scattered, sunken, broken or missing. I “think” I found Elizabeth’s stone; I have not found Philip’s.

I can read the “Elizabeth A” and I can read “September” but I can read nothing else. So I went back to the cemetery and took some close ups thinking I could photo edit them and read them.

Elizabeth's stone?

Elizabeth's stone?

Elizabeth's stone?

Any suggestions on how to read this stone? I don’t want to try to clean it and ruin the stone, but if there is a safe way to read it and/or clean it, I’m open to suggestions! There is a strong possiblility that it is my ancestor Elizabeth’s stone, since the name matches and September is the month she was born in.

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4 thoughts on “How on Earth can I read this Headstone??”

Take a large piece of thin paper and a pencil or crayon and CAREFULLY make a rubbing of the writing. Or you can use aluminum foil. I used the foil trick to be able to read some very old and run-down stones at an ancestor’s grave site. Worked very well!
Good luck!
Ruth